Tuesday, March 4, 2008

NIN / TV / Dump

Last word for now on the new Nine Inch Nails album: it’s awesome. If you, dear reader, actually have any interest in music at all, spend the $5 and get ‘Ghosts I-IV’; for the price of a coffee at Starbucks, you get two hours of music! You cannot lose, period.

Anyway, they did what was called a ‘File Dump’ here at work last Friday. What this meant was that, as of noon last Friday, no files moved whatsoever until every file’s location was essentially recorded in the system. On a more personal level, what this meant for me is that I had next to nothing to do until all the files resumed their typical movements. That might not make much sense right off, but when you consider that my job is to get files from one point to another, then you might start seeing how my workflow level was very much minimized. The normal file movement resumed yesterday afternoon, so as of today everything was pretty much back to normal. Which is good, since there’s nothing I hate more than having nothing to do at work... Actually, that’s not true, there are a lot of things I hate more, but you get the idea right?

On a different note, TV is pissing me off lately: there’s really nothing to watch. Normally, my wife and I seek out new TV shows to watch or catch up on stuff we could have missed, but lately I’ve even lost the motivation to do that. We recently finished the second season of ‘Project Runway’, and I really enjoyed that, so I’m thinking we’ll be jumping into season 3 of that show much sooner than later. The season / half-season of the ‘Sarah Conner Chronicles’ concluded last night, so at least I know we’ve got that waiting for us on the DVR. Plus, ‘Torchwood’ is still going strong which, if I remember correctly, will be followed by Doctor Who sometime in March. Anyway, it’s a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things, but I at least wanted to get it out there.

Oh, and ‘Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction’ is all kinds of awesome.

2 comments:

Torchwood has been a show that I anticipate every week. I like it's darker side compared to Doctor Who. That being said, if I had a choice between the two, Doctor Who would still win hands down.

The new Terminator show is ok, but if there was some better shows around, I probably wouldn't watch it (or maybe save it for the late summer time slow down (but Doctor Who and Battlestar Galatica will be in their mid-way part of the season, so who knows.)

Another show that's just finished it's second season in the UK is ITV's Primeval. It's their answer to the BBC's Torchwood and Doctor Who. Check it out.

As for the new Ratchet and Clank game, my 2 sons and I love the game. It looks great in HDTV and Dolby Digital Surround. The biggest complaint I have is how quick you can win the game. That being said (SPOILER COMING), once you finished the game, you are brought back to the start of the game with the same weapons and their level minus a few weapons/gadgets which are part of the flow of the game. We've won the game a few times now. There were a few spots we had missed the first time around. The second time was a bit harder until we realized that if you upgrade the weapons to the VX level and bring your armor to 999, the games is actually easier and my younger son who is 3 years old can get through most of the beginning levels by himself with minimal help from me.

I am not much of a NIN fan, but I might take a few minutes to go through the net to listen to it and see if I should spend the 5 bucks.

Thanks for leaving a comment Daniel! I'll agree with you: between the good Doctor and Jack and the gang, Doctor Who wins. Still, in this particular time of TV drought, I'll take what I can get! I'll have to check out Primeval now, so thanks for the recommendation!

I don't know how much you've watched of the new Terminator show, but I'm quite surprised how much better it gets as it goes along. Personally, I'm a huge James Cameron fan so I wasn't sure how they would do in regards to the mythology, but I've been quite impressed as the series progresses. The first 2 episodes were definitely in 'meh' territory, but the later ones, in my opinion, have been pretty good. Granted, not Doctor Who or BSG 'good', but entertaining none the less (I think 'entertaining' is the perfect word to describe the show, now that I think about it).

In regards to Ratchet, from what you're telling me, it seems pretty much par for the course once you finish the game (which is great, don't get me wrong!). In prior Ratchet's you could further upgrade your weapons and equipment as well, so I'm glad they kept that mechanic in. I'm generally not one to return to games all that much once I actually complete them, but the Ratchet and Clank games have all managed to keep me playing long after I've run through them for the first time. Therefore, it's really a solid concept that clearly works for the series.

Lastly, regarding NIN: you can get the first part of 'Ghosts' as a free download off the official site, so I recommend you check that out to see if you want to plunk down the $5. Of course I'd recommend it, but I'm biased. :-)